Pavalock-D’Amato proposes an Alice Bruno provision to state statutes governing judges.

State Representative Cara Pavalock-D’Amato (R-Bristol) has proposed legislation to close the Alice Bruno loophole in state statutes. Pavalock-D’Amato’s bill would amend state statutes to “allow for the forfeiture of the vested right to a retirement salary in the event an individual takes an extended period of unauthorized absence from duty that results in the individual being subject to an administrative disciplinary hearing.”

Bruno was the Superior Court judge who left her chambers in November 2019 and never returned. She continued to be paid by judicial branch administrators until last spring. Bruno had claimed a short illness when she left her Waterbury assignment in 2019. Her absence grew longer as explanations became more terse.

In 2020, Bruno claimed on the attendance records she submitted at the end of that year that she had been sick every work day. The 2015 Malloy appointee told the Supreme Court in a special 2022 proceeding that she could return to work under more congenial conditions than she found in Waterbury–where Bruno was distress when her colleague in that courthouse, Judge Anna M. Ficeto, did not greet her when they passed in the hallway.

Bruno, under investigation by a designee of the Supreme Court, applied to the Judicial Review Council for a disability pension. That proceeding was held in secret. Her application was granted in October. Bruno, who served as the executive director of the Connecticut Bar Association for a year and a half before eventually becoming a judge, is receiving a full judicial pension. This year that will be more than $120,000. She was paid more than $400,000 for the more than two years she did not work.

Pavalock-D’Amato serves on the judiciary committee, where her bill will first be considered.

Published January 23, 2023.